The Theft of Lands

Kressel's Gang

Into the Wild

12

AUG/11

The The Adventurers travel to Oleg’s Trading Post, and finding the old fort in good order, the Cleric ? announces the arrival of the the Cavalier, ? to all who would listen – which would be Svetlana. Pleased at their arrival, Svetlana invites them to meal with herself and her husband Oleg, the proprietor of the trading post.

Over sup, Svetlana implores the group to help the couple with their banditry problem, and are properly appalled when they find the group did not know of their requests for help – after all they believed the group to be the help Restov sent to deal with the bandits. The courageous cavalier accepts the chance to do right by the peasants and they begin planning. Oleg volunteers to be bait, luring the bandits into the post to take his goods – as has happened for the last 3 months, allowing the heroes to ambush the baddies while they toil at loading their cart with Oleg’s supplies. The group consider this too much risk for Oleg to take, and instead ask him to hide with Svetlana in the common building whilst they deal with the bandits. So instead they decide to ambush the bandits using the Cleric as the bait, the Cavalier as hammer, with the Rogue ? and Ranger ? in reserve to close the doors from behind and prevent escape.

On cue, shortly after dawn the following morning the band of 4 approach Oleg’s. Happs Bydon leads the pack, with 3 other bandits. Sniffing something fishy they decide to attempt to hide their banditry and instead ask the Cleric for room and board. Not falling for the ploy the Cavalier springs the trap with a demand to surrender, and the Rogue and Ranger do their part to prevent escape. Thoroughly intimidated by the quick execution of the trap and the strong presence of the Cavalier, the bandits continue their ploy of peace but move their hands away from their weapons as asked by the Cavalier.

The Rogue then takes Happs’ bow. Seeing themselves being disarmed without a fight stirs the group to action, Happs’ moves away, and the three bandits dismount to attack the cleric. The Cavalier makes quick work of one of the bandits, the Cleric an Rogue put down a second, and the Ranger takes down Happs. The battle was barely started before it began, so the remaining bandit asked for mercy and received it. In exchange he traded the location of the bandit camp on the Thorn River, south of the trading post.

With the immediate threat taken care of, and the bandits locked in what was Oleg’s office, the group travels south with hopes of finding the bandit camp before the ill-fated pack would be missed. In a bit of poor judgement, perhaps, the Cleric decides he needs to use the cart (which among other things, requires him to purchase a horse back from Oleg only hours after giving it to him).

Traveling South, as per the bandit’s instructions, at the snail’s pace allowed by the cart, the group quickly draw the attention of some mischievous forest spirits, who spend the next 6 days tormenting the group (tripping, painting on faces, undoing pants, stealing shoes…). The adventurers take the cart due south until they break free of the narlmarches’ north-eastern point and enter the kamelands. They travel the kamelands for a few hours, deep into the second day of travel and decide they have gone too far and have taken too long. They turn back thinking they may need to return to the trading post to prevent further attacks, but reach some hillocks on the edge of the kamelands and the narlmarches where they are able to examine the land to find the lay of the thorn river.

One more night in the kamelands, then the group travels westward, dropping the cart off as the enter the narlmarches to allow for faster movement, and in a few hours are at the Thorn River’s bed. Feeling they over-traveled their way south, the group follow the river north, and reach the bandit camp.

The part splits when they hear the bandits in camp. The Rogue and Ranger travel north to investigate the camp, while the other two remain mounted south of the camp to await signal. The stealthy duo travel around the southern edge of the camp gathering what information they could, until they reach the northern edge. At this point they decide to cross the road and river, which splits the camp in two. The river is shallow at this point, making it a good place to cross for a pair with armor but little skill at swimming. Unfortunately the area is wide open and the two are spotted.

Kressel, the bandit captain, fears ambush and flanking, she sends just two of her 5 companions after the two interlopers, and keeps a watch on the south and for more action on the north while remaining in camp. The Cavalier and Cleric take note of the warning alarm and charge to their friends’ protection.

The Cavalier charges at Kressel, heedless of the two archers and the swordsman as he attacks. Taking multiple hits from bow and sword, then from the bandit captain’s double axes the cavalier falls from his horse, and the bandit camp turn their attention to the cleric.

Meanwhile the Rogue and Range re-ambush the two swordmen sent after them. They attack the Rogue, doing little damage, and are flanked and surprised by the Ranger. Together the Rogue and Ranger make quick work of their prey and and rush back to the sounds of battle coming from the camp.

The cleric is ill-prepared for this type of military attention – archers, swordsman, and axe-wielding fiends take their toll, but the cleric is able to push out a healing burst which heals himself and does enough good to bring the cavalier back to the battle. Seeing the fearsome knight regain his feet, the two distant archers again take their aim, and under the combined attack from so many, the cavalier falls again. The cleric also takes a beating, falling to what must be close to death, but the hard-to-kill healer is still capable of acting. As the Rogue and Ranger re-enter battle, the cleric performs another healing burst, saving himself and the cavalier from near certain death.

With four combatants to deal with, has the battle turned? Not as yet! In one swing with her axe, Kressel hits the Ranger square on the base of his shoulder, driving deep into his chest, knocking him out of commission. The Rogue tumbles out of trouble to try and deal some damage to the axe-wielder, but takes damage himself, nearly being dropped. Another round of archer attacks split between the cavalier and the cleric and all looks lost!

But lo! Eristil must be with the Cleric at this moment – another healing burst brings the Ranger and Cavalier back into the battle, and bolsters both his own and the Rogue’s health. With new-found vigor, the group is able to absorb some hits from these outlaws, and luck seems on their side – as it always seems to be with winners, and they four find themselves able to counter-attack as a unit. First flanking the swordsman, the Cavalier and Rogue are able to take him out. The cleric falls back from battle and uses obscurring mist to stimy the archers. The ranger sends two weapons of his own at Kressel, for the first time giving her the task of battle’s pain. Outflanked, outnumbered, and severely injured, Kressel attempts to flee, hoping to use the dense fog as concealment on the way. She does not make it far, however, before she is taken down by the swords surrounding her.

In the remaining route of the archers the group manage to take one prisoner and take possession of the bandit’s second cart. They travel back to where they stored their own cart in hopes to keep one and save the other spare parts, only to find their cart sitting with no wheels.

Enduring more mischief as they travel north, they make better time, and deliver their new prisoner to Oleg’s, where they are relieved to find an answer to at least one question – how do we handle all these excess prisoners? While they were gone the post was re-enforced with a band of Brevoy guards to help protect the post (as it will become more important to Brevoy should their plans here in the south come to fruition). Kravkin Garess leads the group and has sent the prisoners left from the Trading Post battle back to Restov for trial. He will do the same for the latest prisoner bandit. Along with Kravkin and his three guards, a priest of Eristil has also come to the trading post and promises to help the group as they find the need.